What's More Important-- Your Name, Or Where It Is Written?

"....Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven."  (Luke 10:20)

Today's church is concerned more about ministry than Heaven.  I guess this "drive-through" generation thinks that Heaven is too "pie in the sky," too "intangible."  Their ministry is now, and for so many, it's their identity; it's who they are.  In our text, it was not the casting out of demons which was the problem.  Jesus sent them to do that.  It's what motivated their rejoicing.

Maybe church folk today would be a little less apprehensive and a little more relaxed in life if they let the rejoicing over their "ministry" to our Heavenly Father.  The Biblical exhortation is for all of us today--- "Should you then seek great things for yourself?  Seek them not....I will let you escape with your life."  Rejoice in that.

Father, in Jesus' Name, help me to concentrate more on where my name is written than on my name.  Amen.




**************
Ideas to please picky eaters. Watch video on AOL Living.
(http://living.aol.com/video/how-to-please-your-picky-eater/rachel-campos-duffy/2050827?NCID=aolcmp00300000002598)

APF Devotional-- Next year in Jerusalem

"Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good!  His faithful love endures forever."  (Psalm 136:1--NLT-- Video Below)

 

And this Psalm is still being written.  You can add to it.  I can add to it.  Every Believer throughout the centuries could add to it.  Indeed, the whole human race can add to it.  The psalmist begins by praising the Living Triune God, "God of gods-- Lord of lords-- who alone does mighty miracles-- who placed the earth-- made the sun-- the moon and stars...."  Then he proceeds to detail some of the Blessed Trinity's mighty acts on behalf of His Covenant People throughout their history.

 

I believe this is why Israel has survived as a people group, this modern day state in the sea of brutal hostility, surrounded by nations who want nothing but their total destruction.  For generations during the Passover Sadr, the Jews scattered throughout the Diaspora would say, "Next year in Jerusalem."  It kept them going.  You simply must see the video below.  It reveals that through unimaginable horror, Jews have always believed that "He is good!  His faithful love endures forever."  May you and I never forget what the Living Triune God revealed in Jesus Christ did by bringing the Jews back to The Land.  My dear Fellow Believer in Jesus Christ; the Word is for you and all who believe in the "next-years" of the Lord God.  No matter what we go through, no matter how dark the horizon-------------  "His faithful love endures forever!"    

                         Click Here>> Next year in Jerusalem

 

Father, in Jesus' Name, I affirm that You are the God of now, "next year," and forever.  Amen. 

---

Delicious ideas to please the pickiest eaters. Watch the video on AOL Living.

Does It Just Seem Right, Or Is It Right?

"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death."  (Proverbs 14:12)

 

In the original Hebrew, the phrase, "that seems," is not there.  It reads, "There is a way right to a man."  In other words, the man does not believe his way seems right.  He believes his way is right.  What obstinance. Any person who relies on his own senses, upbringing, gender, ethnicity, peer group, or "national origin" for his life style is in great danger of succumbing to deception, ruin, and ultimately the Judgment.

 

Someone once said, "Good intentions are not a justification for wrongdoing.  We must search our ways of life, our opinions, and practices, by the test of the Word of God."  I can be wrong.  You can be wrong.  Everybody can be wrong.  And what is the "wrong?"  It is anything which contradicts the "Word of Christ."  The Bible speaks of "bringing every thought into the obedience of Christ."  Notice, it is not just right thoughts, beliefs, right thinking.  It is "right" obedience.  If our thoughts are shaped by the "Word of Christ," the rest of our life will not be a "seems-right" life.  It will be a right life, a life of security, the security of knowing that I can think right, decide right, and live right, because my "rightness" is not my own but the rightness and the righteousness of Jesus Christ, "who loved me and gave Himself for me."

 

Believe me, Americans, you are going to need this more than ever in the coming year!   

 

Father, in Jesus' Name, I thank You that Your Word will keep me from a "seems right" life.  Amen.

---

Delicious ideas to please the pickiest eaters. Watch the video on AOL Living.

A Fivefold Ministry

"He will not let your foot slip-- he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep...." (Psalm 121:3b, 4--NIV)

"Keep, protect, save, preserve, treasure"--- these are just some of the meanings of, "watches over," in our text.  Five times in Psalm 121 the Holy Spirit reminds us that our Blessed Trinity is our "Watch-Over" God.  We have a lady in our congregation who has been battling breast cancer since last summer.  Her latest report was an "all clear."  She has been a person who has emanated, "He who watches over you will neither slumber nor sleep."

What goes through your mind when you hear of Believers in Jesus Christ going through the same divorces, the same financial problems, the same sicknesses which the unbeliever goes through?  Do you ever ask, "I wonder what waits for me?  When my time comes, how will I go?"  Maybe you never heard another Believer in Jesus ask those questions------------------------------ but they probably have entered your mind at times.  It's O. K.  It is a part of being human, facing the realities of life.  If my faith does not enable me to face reality, then it is a "faith" of man, not the faith of Jesus Christ. 

But "fear not."  The promise of the Living Triune God in Jesus Christ to you, to me, to Israel today is that "He Who watches over you will neither slumber nor sleep."  No matter what you face, you will never have to wake up your Heavenly Father to tell Him about it.  If He seems to be doing nothing, that "seem" is not the reality.  Remember, five times He is telling you, "I watch over Mine.  I watch over Mine.  I watch over Mine.  I watch over Mine.  I watch over Mine."

Father, in Jesus' Name, I receive this fivefold promise today.  Amen.


**************
Ideas to please picky eaters. Watch video on AOL Living.
(http://living.aol.com/video/how-to-please-your-picky-eater/rachel-campos-duffy/2050827?NCID=aolcmp00300000002598)

"Confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the Glory of God the Father"

"....At the Name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth....Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."  (Philippians 2:10, 11--NLT) 

 

I have said that I will try to separate the political from the devotional.  Can't be done.  If you take that approach, you are saying there are certain things which belong to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and certain things which do not.  You cannot have your own little private "bless me club," your own "feel-good-about-me" religion and go on thinking and living as you always have.  Biblical theology attacks such attempts as pure folly.  

 

The Smile of Father comes when my life reflects Jesus Christ in Me-- "For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me."  Whether I am in worship, prayer, in my home, my office, the market, or the polling place, the "will of Him who sent [Jesus]," and, "Jesus Christ is Lord," must be the "controlling" factor.  There is just no place where I am which Jesus is not.  There is no thought, no ideology, no vote in my life which is outside of the Reign of Jesus Christ.  If I think and live otherwise, I should no longer use the terms, "Christian," or, "Believer," to describe me.  Knee bowing and tongue confessing are only valid when every area of my life submits, not to my gender, ethnicity, or cultural upbringing, but to the "will of Him," and, "Jesus Christ is Lord."

 

Father, in Jesus' Name, search every nook and cranny of my life to find anything not under Your control.  Amen.  

****************************

Click Here>> www.antipasprayerforce.blogspot.com

 

---

Delicious ideas to please the pickiest eaters. Watch the video on AOL Living.